It’s Surprising To Discover I Was Richer Than Buhari, Osinbajo Confesses

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has confessed that he was surprised to discover in 2015 after he was picked as Vice Presidential candidate to discover that he was even richer that his boss, President Muhmmadu Buhari.

He wondered how many Nigerian who would have been Minister of Petroleum, Governor of the whole of the Northeast, Head of State, not once or twice, but thrice, would want to make do with just one home in Kaduna and some very modest place in Daura.

“When I looked at his assets declaration form, I was checking it in 2015, I said to him, “Mr President, I am so much richer than you, it is an embarrassment.”

He said to me: “I am only a soldier, you are a big lawyer so you should have more money than me.”

“I can tell you that he is perhaps; even poorer than he was in 2015 when I saw his declaration of assets form.”

Vice President Osinbajo, who addressed the PMB/PYO Volunteers’ appreciation dinner last night, Thursday, at the Presidential villa, Abuja, said the real heroes of the just concluded 2019 Presidential election “are you all seated here today, who went out every day to campaign and talk about what you believed about our government, what you thought this government could do for the Nigerian people.
“One thing that is clear to me is that your belief and commitment were not wrongly placed. You are absolutely right that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is the appropriate and right government for Nigeria at this time.
“And the simple reason why that is so is that today what our country needs the most is honest government, that’s what our country needs. And I’ll tell you why as I repeated many times in the course of the campaign; our country is not short of ideas, projects or money. What we are short of is integrity in office. Corruption is the major problem that our country has faced. And once we are able to deal with it effectively, and we will, we will be the great nation we ought to be.
“Sometimes, I talk to my friends in the Southeast about the second Niger Bridge, which was commissioned in 2014, but it was not designed, it was just commissioned. How does anybody do that? Today, the highest amount of money as an immediate payment for any project we have ever done was for the second Niger Bridge, 33billion immediate payment for that bridge. That is the highest amount of money we have ever put for one single payment.
“We are going to start the Mambila Project, and have put money aside for it. All these projects are projects that the President himself not just negotiated, but supervises on a regular basis.
“And that is the thing; a lot of work needs to be done in this country. Infrastructures we need to put in place will be put in place. And the reason why is because the President is not a thief. And that is to just put it very simply. Many believe that the government is very complicated, no. If the man who is in charge is honest, everything we want to be done will be done, just take a look at our Social Investment Programmes.
“I was saying to some group of people that today we are feeding 9.2 million children every single day as part of our school feeding programme. We’re paying for 500,000 N-Power beneficiaries every month. We have given almost 2million traders TraderMoni loans, and almost 500,00 MarketMoni. Apart from that, we are giving N5,000 to the poorest of the poor per month, we are now approaching 500,000 and we are going to do a million.
“All of that has still not cost us N300 billion. Yet some people ran a programme called Sure-P, and we cannot find a single beneficiary and it cost N700billion. On everything I’ve said, we still haven’t spent N300billion in 2 years.
“So, it’s not as if this business of doing the right thing is rocket science. The major thing is an honest man, as we have an honest man, everything we want to be done is what will be done.
“And I believe very strongly with your support, all of what we wish and want for our country will be done.”